One of Vancouver’s most historic industrial sites is transforming into a new kind of job space that will bring dozens of new companies and up to 500 workers to the north end of Victoria Drive.

Conwest Group held a ground-breaking ceremony on March 1 to mark the launch of construction of Ironworks, a two-building 200,000-square-feet flex industrial-commercial project on the site of the former Terminal City Iron Works foundry.

The site — once used to make heavy-duty waterworks equipment, war effort materials and later, movies — will now house post-industrial firms making things like software, blueprints and perhaps craft beer.

When finished at the end of 2018, the buildings of two- and three-levels will cover one city block. It’s located at Victoria Drive between Pandora and Franklin streets.